The Magnificent Adam
by Adamantwrites
Summary: Adam reveals to Ben what happened between him and Adah Menken. Note: Historically, Adah Meken was born in 1835, five years after the accepted date of 1830 for Adam's birth. Ruth Roman who played Adah, was born in 1922, six years before Pernell Roberts. I used Adah's actual age for this story-not Ruth Roman's.


The Magnificent Adam

"So, what exactly happened between you and Miss Menken?" Ben stood with an amused expression on his face while Adam sat by the fire; he had been reading even though he hadn't been able to concentrate waiting for his father to return from Virginia City. And now his father was before him, still dressed in his finest suit and vest; after all, Ben Cartwright had spent the evening with the infamous actress, Adah Issacs Menken.

Adam again felt a flush of humiliation wash over him. "What did she tell you?"

"Well, Miss Menken said that you were very much like me. I hope that's a compliment but then, that's yet to be seen. When I asked Hoss and Joe, they said that you told them what happened was none of their business and it would be none of mine except that you being my son and having you compared to me, well, I think I have a right to know."

Adam stared at his hands clasped before him and gave a self-conscious laugh. "Well, for one, she told me the inverse-that I was just like you. I took that for a compliment." Adam sighed and then continued. "Hoss, Joe and I thought that you needed protection from a 'grasping' woman and if we could prove that Miss Menken, being an actress and all, was a loose woman…well, if she responded to the advances of one of your sons, then you would see her for what she was—at least what we thought she was. I mean, I never intended to carry through with any seduction, we just wanted to prove that she was willing to be seduced. And then, we figured that when we told you about it, well, you wouldn't romance her anymore and would thank us." Adam waited but there was no response yet from his father. "It was a bad idea."

"It certainly was. And it was cruel." Ben paced and Adam glanced up occasionally to see if he could infer his father's mood.

"Look, Pa, I kissed her and she didn't resist—or protest, so I thought that she and I understood each other, what we each wanted. And when she returned the advance and kissed me, I was thinking—well, I was thinking that I didn't know if I would be able to tell you that she was easy; if you loved her, it would hurt you too much. So I was sorry about setting her up and I was thinking that I should just leave but then she slapped me so hard my eyes rattled. Then she lit into me asking how dare I use my…she used a term that sounded like a line from a melodrama—a bad one. Something about shoulders and…"

"Your broad-shouldered virility?"

"Yeah—that was it." Adam looked at his father who was smiling. "Pa," Adam asked in a teasing manner, "how come you're so familiar with that term?" Ben laughed.

"Well," Ben explained, "Adah said that we were very much alike, you and I, didn't she? So why wouldn't she describe us both with the same words? And had your evening become more intimate, well, there are many other terms she probably would have used. Just remember, Adah Menken is always on stage and although she lacks originality, she does remember dialogue."

"I always suspected you were quite the Casanova in your prime, Pa."

"In my prime?" Ben expressed mock offense.

"Pa, even a seed bull has to be put out to pasture eventually—or butchered."

Ben shook his finger at Adam. "Don't go getting any ideas, young man! I'm still as good as or better than you are even on my worst day!"

Adam put up his hands in mock surrender and the father and son laughed. Then the conversation took a serious turn.

"Do you love her, Pa?" That was what Adam, Hoss and Joe really wanted to know.

Ben sighed and sat on the low table in front of the fireplace, something he never did, and gazed into the dying flames.

"I did once, long ago—or at least I thought I did. Adah Menken was one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen. I met her in Texas, I had taken down a small herd, and she was so young—much younger than I was. I was old enough to be her father—after all, you were twenty-three and away at college and she's just about your age. We had no real money then, remember? I was just a widower with three sons. But after the show, in her dressing room, Adah and I drank absinthe—quite a heady liquor- and then…well, a gentleman never talks about such matters." Ben turned to look at Adam. "But she never really loved me even though we saw each other a few times before I returned home. She married a musician and left Texas and eventually became the Magnificent Adah. Adam, she was so ethereally lovely when she was younger-like a dewy rose. And now, as she moves closer to middle age, well, her beauty may be fading but I will always look at her with the eyes of a man enchanted by a beautiful, young actress."

Adam looked at his father and admired even more the gray-haired man who had raised him. His father was stepping beyond middle age but Adam still saw him as the young, brave, proud man who had cared for him as they crossed the wild country together.

"You know, Adam," Ben said, "I always think of you as a boy, my boy, but Adah was right when she said that you're a man. You impressed her and now that I know all that passed between you two and how you altered your original intention, well, you're a man I admire."

"Well, thank you, Pa."

Ben stood up. "And it also doesn't hurt that you're just like me!"

Father and son laughed again and then Ben went up to bed. Adam remained sitting, thinking over the evening and the brief conversation with his father. "I only hope that I'm as good a man as you think I am, Pa, as good as you are." And then Adam sat back and thought of kissing the beautiful Adah Menken earlier that evening and how she had eagerly responded to him, that is, before her ostensible outrage; after all, Adam considered, her response was exactly what the scene had called for. Adam smiled; Adah Menken really was a poor actress.

~ Finis ~


End file.
